In a dark room, illuminated only by thin, fluorescent light strips on the floor, guests at the Dior Men’s Fall/Winter 2024 runway show sat in anticipation, twinkling ceiling lights casting an ethereal glow across the room. All at once, the runway lit up, and spotlights focused on the path, as a dark, classical balletic piece—arranged by Max Richter—echoed throughout the cavernous venue. Models streamed out of the shadows, clad in Kim Jones‘ dance-inspired Fall/Winter 2024 collection for Dior, walking a circular path around the center of the room.
Inspired by ballet in several capacities—including the house’s long history with the artistic dance form and Jones’ own family connections—the menswear line drew from the beauty, luxury, and commitment towards craft at the center of ballet. Jones cited his uncle, Colin Jones, a former ballet dancer turned photographer, and his relationship with Rudolf Nureyev, the renowned Soviet-born ballet dancer, as two sources of the collection’s core ethos, designing the pieces with all of the mesmerizing charisma and captivating masculinity that Nureyev exuded.
Gracefully tailored suits, elegant crystalline details, uniquely masculine shorts, and playful pops of color were all major presences on the Dior Fall/Winter 2024 runway, evoking the spirit of Nureyev and paying homage to the art of ballet through these refined elements of style.
Drawing from the Dior archives and the Saint Laurent tailoring style—characterized by volume, pleats, vents—Jones combines these classic attitudes towards menswear with his own oblique tailoring technique, often opting for a minimal approach to suiting, and forgoing traditional, ultra-fitted silhouettes in favor of a flowy, yet simultaneously sophisticated fit, resulting in a rare vision—a suit abundant in the sense of liberation it offers, both to the viewer and the wearer. In the same vein, the loosely tailored shorts presented on the runway offer a more playful, but no less powerful approach to a typically masculine style, toying with and subverting the traditional implications behind the look to offer an elegant, transformed rendition.
Dynamic silhouettes were in abundance on the Dior runway. Structured collars were seen in conversation with flowy, asymmetric jackets, loose, shimmery tops were layered with heavy overcoats, and delicate, ruffled detailing was juxtaposed against rigid, structured tailoring. In ribbed knitwear, zipped woolen jumpsuits, and lavish leather outerwear, Nureyev’s style and the attitude of the ballet dancer come through, showcasing the emblematic sixties and seventies style of simplicity that is reflective of the time period.
While the collection revolved primarily around elevated, eye-catching neutral tones, including ranges of beige, white, and black tones, the pops of color, presented in the form of vibrant calf-length socks, rich velvet hats, and several outerwear pieces presented towards the end of the show that featured swirling motifs, rich in deep red, blue and green hues. Also accenting the pieces in Dior’s Fall/Winter 2024 menswear collection were a myriad of rhinestones, crystals, and embroidered details, adding a touch of glimmer and extravagance to the pieces, both to create visual interest and depth, and perhaps also as homage to the traditionally ornate ballet costumes and the dance form’s roots in visual splendor and flamboyance.
As the show came to a close, models streamed back into the center of the room once again, walking the same circular path that marked the show’s opening, forming two concentric circles—in the center, innermost ring, models stopped at once, turning to face the audience, as a rotating platform rose several feet into the air. Below, the outermost circle continued walking the circular path, almost mimicking the spins and twists of an expert ballet dancer, and creating a dynamic, striking final display, one befitting both the legacy of Nureyev and the spirited, vital intersection between Dior and dance, as shown by the long, storied history between the house and the artistic expression.
